


Someone to Confide In

by DejaBoo



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Family Bonding, Gen, I tried my best to highlight it, Mabel and Stan have such a sweet relationship, Stancest is mentioned very briefly, This takes place the night after SotBE, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:01:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23551984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DejaBoo/pseuds/DejaBoo
Summary: She had chosen to not forget. When Wendy had taken the memory gun and asked her if she still wanted to erase all the memories of her past crushes, it had been easy for her to say no. Of course it was after seeing the state that Old Man McGucket had been reduced to from using the frightening device on himself. And she had said it herself: it was better to remember the bad things and learn from them than to go all denial crazy.But she felt like she was going an entirely different kind of crazy right now.
Relationships: Mabel Pines & Stan Pines, Stanford Pines/Stanley Pines
Kudos: 59





	Someone to Confide In

Mabel sighed and kicked her blanket and sheets off for what had to be the billionth time that night. For hours now, she had been tossing and turning the night away. 

It was one of those nights. 

It wasn’t uncommon for her to occasionally have trouble sleeping due to the suffocating summer heat, but tonight was different. Tonight, it wasn’t the temperature that was keeping her roused. It was the frustrating memories of all her failed summer romances. 

She had chosen to not forget. When Wendy had taken the memory gun and asked her if she still wanted to erase all the memories of her past crushes, it had been easy for her to say no. Of course it was after seeing the state that Old Man McGucket had been reduced to from using the frightening device on himself. And she had said it herself: it was better to remember the bad things and learn from them than to go all denial crazy. 

But she felt like she was going an entirely different kind of crazy right now. 

It wasn’t that she was unhappy with how the summer’s going. In fact, this was hands down the most fun summer she’s ever had in her life. She had fun adventures with her brother almost every day, she’d made the bestest friends she could ever ask for and had the privilege of taking care of the sweetest, cutest pig in whole entire world, so she wasn’t unhappy just a bit...unsatisfied. 

She had been really looking forward to the daring, whirlwind romance she had prepared herself for all year; she had religiously read tips from all the teen magazines she could get her hands on and had taken notes when watching Hallmark Channel Christmas specials. 

BLARG! She had come so close so many times! Gabe Benson had seemed so cute, with his luscious golden ponytail, until she found out he was a creep who makes out with puppets. Sev’ral Times had made the perfect pet boy band, well maybe not ‘perfect’; Chubby Z tended to be a bit nippy and Deep Chris chewed up her shoes a couple times, but she had loved them despite their charming though slightly disturbing flaws and had been heartbroken to release them into the wild where they may or may not belong. 

And Mermando! Oh, sweet Mermando! The boy who had treated her best, the boy she had shared her first kiss with. Now preparing to wed a beautiful queen. 

Ugh, whyyyy? Why was pining after a love that she could never have? Why was she lying in bed awake all night thinking about it? Why was she obsessing over an unrequited crush just like... oh... just like... 

Just like Dipper. 

She sits up abruptly and turns to her brother thinking that maybe he’s going through the same thing she is right now and- 

Dipper is sleeping in an awkward half-sitting position, his neck craned backwards in a way that will surely make it sore in the morning. A chewed-up pen cap hangs from his mouth precariously, in his lap is a notebook with scribblings of what had to be conspiracies and the whatnot. He also held the broken remains of the laptop he had frantically tried to help Soos repair after Bill had destroyed it, but to no avail. It seems he had taken to dismantling the machine and meticulously searching its inner mechanisms for anything, any semblance of some kind of clue. 

Mabel's eyes run over the large poster board on the wall that asks, “Who is The Author?” and ‘Oh yeah, that’s right,’ she thinks. Dipper isn’t thinking about Wendy; he has this to obsess over now. 

She gets up and walks over to her brother’s bedside. She considers waking him up for a round of Attic Stuff Mini-Golf to get her mind on something more fun, but she decides not to when she sees the dark bags under her twin’s eyes. So, instead she turns off the table lamp sitting on his bed, takes the pen cap out of his mouth, and slowly pulls the covers up to his shoulders. 

“Mm...” he gently groans in his sleep. He mutters, “Final..ly... mee...you...huge fannnn...” 

She figures even if she did wake him up, he probably wouldn’t want to play anyway. He was so serious about this Author thing; he would probably go right back to his ‘research’ and tell her it was more important than silly games, and then she would look sad, and then he would apologize and say they could do it another time, and she would argue that’s what he said the last time, and ugh! Why did he try to act like such an adult all the time? He’s a kid and silly games ARE important for them. 

‘Nope, no,’ she thinks. She was already upset about one thing tonight she didn’t need this too. She sighs and rubs her tired eyes, glancing back at her bed but she knows as soon as she lays down her mind would pick up where it left off; swimming, or maybe more like drowning, in the woes of lost love. 

She needed a pick-me-up. Something to get her to quit being such a mope-y moper-son. 

She scratches her chin and thinks about what she could possibly do in the middle of the night like this without waking her family. 

Listen to the new Dustin Biever single? No, too loud. 

Read the age-appropriate romance novels Grenda had let her borrow? No, also too loud; her ‘squeeing’ had once reached a frequency high enough to shatter glass. 

Hmmm... oh! Maybe she needed a cold, refreshing glass of Mabel Juice to lift her spirits. Her home-brewed concoction always puts an extra pep in her step. 

She makes her way to the attic door and sees Waddles adorably sleeping away at the foot of her bed. It takes every ounce of her willpower to walk by him without gathering him up in her arms and smothering him with cuddles and kisses and love. 

With a sharp intake a breath through her nose she rips her gaze off him and whips her head in the other direction then quietly shuts the bedroom door. She dramatically clenches her fist. The cuddles will have to wait until morning. 

She tiptoes down the stairs and makes her way through the deathly quiet shack into the kitchen without incident. She pops open the fridge, the light inside illuminates a pitcher of red sparkly liquid with various small plastic toys thrown in. She pours herself a glass and seats herself at the table. 

“How'd ya get it to sparkle?” Stan had asked her when she had first presented it to him. 

“Well, that’s a Mabel mystery,” she had replied with a wink. 

“Heh, yeah well,” he said taking a glass of the neon bright beverage and staring it down with a grimace. “If I die within the next 24 hours, there won’t be any mystery there, huh?” he said before taking a small sip. His face immediately contorted, “Oh, God.” 

“Do you like it?” 

“Oh, oh yeah,” he started to cough, doubling over. “Yeah, it’s great sweetie,” he wheezed. 

Mabel beamed. After that Stan ran out of the room with a hand over his mouth. He was probably excitedly rushing out because he wanted to tell everyone how great Mabel Juice is. 

Ah, memories. The memory of her grunkle liking something that she made makes her feel warm and fuzzy inside. She feels better, apparently Mabel juice is just what she needed. She lets the tension ease out of her shoulders and relaxes into the chair letting her head rest on its back with a small smile. 

Then she thinks idly, ‘I wonder if Mermando would like my Mabel juice?’ 

She slams her hands on the table nearly knocking the glass over. No, this was supposed to get her mind off boys! But it’s too late. Before she knows it, she’s wondering if Sev’ral Times would enjoy it or that one cute vampire... 

She pours a little more juice into her glass so she can down it all in one gulp and then slam the glass on the table with a surly sigh like they do in the movies to drown their sorrows with alcohol. Or she guesses it was juice because that’s what Grunkle Stan had told her, but she could have sworn that they were some kind of alcoholic beverages. Ugh, what does it matter? 

‘SLAM!’ 

Mabel jumps at the sudden sound of a door slamming shut. She must have been drowning in her sorrows too loudly and woken up Grunkle Stan. But, wait... That noise hadn’t come from the direction of his bedroom, it had come from the direction of the entrance to the gift shop. 

She quietly runs to the stove and picks up the frying pan laying on top of it, brandishing it as a weapon. It better not be the gnomes again. She thought Jeff had learned his lesson last time when she had punted him through the window. 

Before she can charge around the corner and ambush them, her war cry dies in her throat when she hears a familiar gruff sigh followed by the telltale squeak of the old recliner. The TV blares to life, momentarily loud before the volume is quickly turned down. The TV casts a muted light into the hallway that Mabel follows. 

She pauses at the threshold of the living room. Hunched over in the recliner sits Stan. He removes his glasses to rub his eyes. The shifting light of the TV seems to highlight his old features, bringing out his wrinkles and the weary droop of his mouth. He looks very tired and he looks very... serious. 

The sound of canned laughter comes from the wacky sitcom on TV but Stan doesn’t laugh along heartily with an exuberant knee slap like he usually does. He stares with an intense gaze at the screen but his mind seems to be somewhere else. 

“Grunkle Stan?” 

Stan nearly jumps out his skin at the sudden voice. He gives Mabel a startled look before sighing with relief and putting a hand over his heart. 

“Jesus, you try’na give me a heart attack?” He says with irritation, slumping back in the chair. 

“Why were you in the gift shop?” 

He visibly tenses at the question. His shoulders and jaw stiffen and he looks away, locking his eyes back on the TV. 

“It’s none’a your damn business what I was doin’ in my shop,” he grumbles defensively before looking back at her, “and I should be askin’ you what the hell you’re doin’ up in the middle of the goddamn night.” he snaps. 

She was used to her uncle’s grumpy quips, and any other time she would have responded by sticking her tongue out at him and calling him an old sourpuss. Tonight however, because she was in such a gloomy mood to begin with, his sharp tone got to her. She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes without her permission. She muffled a sniff with the sleeve of her sweater and quickly tried to rub the tears away before they could fall. 

Any anger that had been in Stan’s expression immediately fell away and was replaced with concern. 

“Hey,” he murmurs gently. He gets out of his chair and kneels in front of her, resting a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, what’s the matter, kiddo?” 

She won’t meet his eyes. He lightly squeezes her shoulder. She stares hard down at her feet that are wearing bright pink socks with little kitty faces on the them. He brings his other hand up to thumb away a stray tear on her cheek. That gets her to glance up at him briefly, she averts her eyes after she sees the patient, loving smile on his face. 

“Nothing...” she mumbles and lightly chews her bottom lip. 

“Nothing, huh?” he pauses for a moment, giving her a second in case she changed her mind and decided to spill. “Welp,” he says finally. He moves to get up, his joints cracking painfully. “If it’s nothing, I guess you should get yourself in bed.” 

Mabel sighs and turns toward the stairs. 

“Or-” 

Mabel looks back up at her uncle. 

“Ya could, I dunno,” He leans against the doorframe, rubbing his chin with a sly smirk, “Ya could just stay up, eat ice cream, and watch movies with your Grunkle Stan instead.” 

The smile Mabel gave him was blinding. 

~ 

This was as much for her as it was for him. He needed to get his mind on something else too. Besides, anytime with his favorite grandniece was time well spent. 

They ate ice cream straight out of the carton, Mabel ate strawberry, Stan ate rocky road. Stan told Mabel to pick her favorite movie, and immediately regretted it because for what had to be the twentieth time this summer, she put on that damn 90s cartoon with the two brightly colored and radical young men that occasionally haunted his dreams. 

Ugh, it hurts his eyes. How could she sit there without taking her eyes off it for hours? The kid probably has permanent retina damage by now. 

Carefree, Mabel sat on Stan’s lap and cheerily kicked her feet and sang along to all the musical numbers. To his horror, Stan realized he knew most of the words as well. 

Despite having to endure the assault to the senses that was Dream Boy High, it was worth it. He enjoyed Mabel’s company; she was a comforting presence in the midst of everything. 

He looks down at her tucked snugly against his side, and he wonders if once this is all over, she’ll still want to do things like this with him. 

It was finally going to happen after all this time. Soon. And it had been so long, it couldn’t happen soon enough... and yet he feels that this is an inopportune time with the kids being here. He had never been so anxious with anticipation his entire life. 

How is she going to take it? And Dipper. How will he take it? 

He sighs and places a hand on top of her head, gently stroking her hair. She takes his other hand in hers, her fingers sticky with melted ice cream. He gives her a small squeeze. 

He hopes she’ll trust him. 

A yelp from the TV abruptly pulls him out of his thoughts. On the screen, Xeronica runs into Xyler’s arms in an emotional reunion after their falling out at her Sweet Sixteen Summer Bodacious Bangin’ Bash. Xeronica, who just looks like a female version of Xyler, expresses how ‘bogus, wack, and lame’ of her it was to kick him out of her party. The two of them embrace and share a passionate kiss. 

“Righteous.” Xyler says after they part. Craz appears next to him to give him a high five. 

This is usually the part where Mabel is all squeals and enthusiastically ranting about how ‘Xyronica is relationship goals,’ but she is oddly quiet at the moment. 

“Grunkle Stan?” She looks up at him inquisitively. 

“Yeah, pumpkin?” he smiles. 

“Do you remember your first kiss?” 

She watches his smile fall and his Adam’s apple bob as he swallows. 

He could never forget. He could never forget the sounds of the creaking old ship, the squawk of sea gulls in the distance, the melodic rush of waves against the shore. He could never forget the feeling of the sand between his toes and the sting of his sunburns, or the feeling of a six fingered hand tangled through his hair as young, inexperienced, uncertain, lips pressed awkwardly against his own. No, he hadn’t forgotten, it’s as vivid in his mind as it was the day it had happened. 

He frowns and shakes his head. 

“Nah,” he lies. 

Mabel’s eyes go wide as saucers. 

“Whaaaat?!” She squawks causing Stan to wince at her volume. “How could not remember your first kiss?!” She wildly flails her arms. Stan can only shrug lamely in response, Mabel sputters in disbelief. 

“Your first kiss is supposed to be magical,” she states like it’s obvious. “It’s supposed to make you feel like you’re flying and falling all at once, and-and make your head feel like is full of fluffy clouds,” she continues dreamily, going starry eyed. “It’s supposed to be so special you’ll remember it for the rest of your life!” She finishes with such passion that Stan flinches at her fiery expression. 

“Heh yeah, that’s real poetic,” he says scratching the back of his head. “I guess mine wasn’t special enough.” 

It was. 

Mabel stares at him for a moment contemplatively before her face falls and Stan worries for a moment that the wistful ache in his chest was showing on his face. 

“Well, mine was,” she mumbles before hugging her knees to her chest and letting out a heavy sigh. 

“You don’t sound too happy about it though.” 

“I was happy about it.” She runs her finger in a circle against the fabric on the arm of the chair. “But... he’s... he’s gone now.” 

“Oh, oh no, sweetie. He... he passed away?” 

“No, he married a manatee.” 

“O-Oh, is that-is that right?” Honestly, between the guy with the woodpecker wife and this, he really wasn’t that surprised. 

“He left me,” Mabel says sadly, her shoulders drooping. She flops over the arm of the chair, her head dangling off the side. “Just like they all do!” She dramatically raises her arms before letting them heavily fall on her lap. 

He’s heartbroken, and more than a little furious this boy had made her feel so sad. Whoever this punk was, he’ll need to get his name so he could find him and teach him a lesson. 

“Ah, who needs ‘im?” Stan lifts her up by her shoulders so he can look her in the eye. “If he can’t see how amazing you are, if this wise guy thinks some dumb animal is worth more of his time than you are, then I say he can take a hike. 

“He can’t hike. He doesn’t have legs... I get what you meant, though. But he didn’t marry her because he wanted to. He had to because he had to, like, stop an undersea civil war from happening or something.” 

This guy is getting weirder by the second. 

“He didn’t want to leave me behind, he said he didn’t want to, but... I'm just a silly kid who puts gummy worms up her nose. He's doing important things. I know they’re important for him, but... I don’t know, I just feel kinda left out, I guess. Is that selfish?” 

“No,” Stan answers immediately without hesitation. “No, no, no. Not at all, sweetheart. I know... it can be hard when someone ya care for leaves ya behind.” 

“You do?” She sits up straight, looking a little surprised. 

He nods with an empathetic smile. 

Mabel hums in response, seemingly contemplating something. 

“Well, how do you stop feeling upset about it?” she asks. “I know I should just get over it, but...” 

“Well...” Oh boy, she was asking for emotional advice. He didn’t know if he had the right answer, but he at least had a sincere one. 

“I think it’s okay for you to feel upset about it. Ya can’t just make yourself stop carin’ about someone; ya can’t help the way you feel sometimes. You shouldn’t feel bad about bein’ disappointed.” He puts his hand on her shoulder. “And hey, if you’re ever feelin’ left out, I’ll always be here for ya. If ya need to talk or if some jerk breaks your heart, just show me where he lives, and I’ll knock his lights out.” He says clenching his fist and flexing his muscles. 

Mabel laughs looking like she feels a lot better and Stan sighs in relief. 

“Thanks Grunkle Stan,” she says with sincerity and a toothy grin. She wraps her arms and around his neck, he gives her a peck on the forehead in return. “And,” she continues, pulling away so she can look him in the eyes. “If you ever feel left out,” she boops his nose, “I’m always here for you too.” 

“Heh. I know, kiddo.” he says willing himself not to get choked up. 

“Aww, are you crying?” 

“N-no, it’s that damn cartoon. Too bright. Makes my eyes water.” He says hurriedly rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. 

“Grunkle Stan, the tape ended like ten minutes ago.” 

“O-oh, well, do want to watch it again?” Shit, no. He didn’t mean to- 

“Yeah!” 

Goddamnit. 

It ended up being not so bad this time. Mabel fell asleep with her head on his shoulder after the first twenty minutes. Stan, soothed by the mere feeling of her being close to him, followed soon after.

**Author's Note:**

> These two characters are so fun to write for. This was my first time writing Mabel and she is such a delight.   
> Consider leaving a comment and letting me know what you think. :)
> 
> I have a new tumblr as well if you'd like to check it out, I'd appreciate it!: https://dejabooooo.tumblr.com/


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